Fencamfamin (Euvitol; Allen and Hanburys Ltd.) is a central nervous stimulant with pharmacological properties similar to amphetamine. It is the hydrochloride of 2-ethylamine-3-phenyl-norbornane and the structural formula is as follows:

The value of intensive “occupational therapy” in the treatment and social rehabilitation of chronic psychotic patients has long been recognized. There is a large literature, very often only descriptive, but also experimental (cf. for example Grygier and Waters, 1958; Robin, 1958), demonstrating the superior adjustment of patients engaged in various sorts of occupations over those not thus occupied. Whilst however the value of occupation per se may be taken as demonstrated, there are few studies comparing the relative efficacy of different types of occupation in the social adjustment of patients. It is of interest to compare briefly the claims which are sometimes made for these different activities.

The present investigation was carried out in order to check on the reliability of the findings reported in a previous publication by Hamilton and Salmon (1962). In this first experiment objective assessments were made of the effects on male chronic schizophrenic patients of three activity programmes: Industrial Workshop Therapy, Occupational Therapy and a control situation in which patients did not receive any specific activity therapy. The effects of these therapeutic approaches were assessed in terms of test scores and ratings, as well as output and earnings for those patients receiving Workshop Therapy. For patients undergoing Workshop Therapy a separate assessment was made of the effects of payment by result compared with flat-rate payment, and of co-operative work compared with working as individuals. The major findings of this study were that Industrial Workshop Therapy led to greater improvement than Occupational Therapy, that the greatest changes in behaviour occurred while patients were working individually and receiving a weekly flat-rate payment, that the behavioural changes in the Workshop group continued in the second, piecework, phase of the investigation, that piecework payments did not result in greater output than flat-rate payment, and that patients working in small teams compared with patients working as individuals, both under piecework conditions, showed greater all-round improvement on the indices used to measure it.

Steroid treatment in mental illness seems generally in past trials to have produced variable results. Forrest, Drewery, Fotherby and Laverty (1960) failed, for example, to confirm the encouraging findings of Strauss et al. (1952) and Sands (1954) on the use of Dehydroepiandrosterone (Diandrone) in certain types of schizophrenia with personality defect.

Since the pioneering studies of Hebb and his associates (2) on the effects of sensory deprivation on human beings, numerous investigators have conducted experimental studies under varying conditions in an effort to establish consistent trends in behaviour of subjects exposed to such conditions. Since only two other laboratories, both using male subjects, have reported underwater studies in deprivation (1, 5), an attempt to replicate our findings of sex differences in response to the situation by use of this method seemed to be in order.